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Paul Klee quotes

Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a Swiss-German artist with a unique style and a broad influence. He was a master of color and taught at the legendary Bauhaus school. As a teacher he was as inventive and progressive as his art, teaching his students to study the movement of fish in a fish tank or to draw the circulatory system. Today I want to share with you some of his work along with some of his words.

“Color possesses me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.”

“Castle and Sun”

“One eye sees, the other feels.”

“Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.”

“Insula Dulcamara”

“Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved free of corruption from an early age.”

“Cat and Bird”

“When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.”

“He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise.”

“Heroic Roses”

“To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.”

“Death and Fire”

“The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions.”